Sorry for the delay. Here's the eleventh chapter!
Chapter Eleven: Dragon's Den
We flew in silence for a couple of seconds. "So what happens now?" asked Astrid. I didn't say anything. "Hiccup, your final exam is tomorrow!" Astrid said. "You know you're going to have to kill a—" She leaned in and whispered in my ear, "Kill a dragon."
Toothless suddenly whined. We both looked at him. He turned his head from side to side frantically and then abruptly dove into a large group of clouds. "Toothless, what's happening?" I asked. Toothless didn't answer. He just shook his head some more and kept flying through the mist. "Toothless, you've gotta get us out of here," I pleaded. Toothless whined and shook his head.
Suddenly, a Monstrous Nightmare plunged out of the clouds and swerved in front of Toothless. He almost collided with a Nadder, who dropped out of the sky on Toothless's other side. They squawked at each other in annoyance. Both were carrying fish and sheep in their claws. Gradually more dragons began to appear out of the mist. Within seconds we could see that we were surrounded by thousands of dragons of various species, some calling out to one another, some bickering with each other. All of them had some sort of meat in their claws. "It looks like they're hauling in their kill," I said in a hushed voice, ducking as a Zippleback turned both its heads in my direction.
"Uh…what does that make us?" Astrid asked nervously, hugging me tighter and shrinking against my back.
Ahead of us, all the dragons suddenly dove beneath the clouds. Toothless followed suite. Astrid and I tried not to scream as Toothless carried us along with the dragons at high velocity through endless cloud forests.
Suddenly we burst through the clouds and were flying through clearer air. Directly in front of us was an enormous volcano. Small streams of lava trickled out the mouth and drizzled down the sides. Large chunks of ice were lodged into the rock. The dragons were headed towards a hole in the side of the volcano. Astrid let out a sharp cry of fear as Toothless dove into the hole.
We swerved through a dark, rocky tunnel, lit by the occasional drop of lava leaking into the tunnel. Stalactites and stalagmites stuck out from the ceiling and the floor, creating lots of obstacles for us to get around. Toothless almost crashed into another dragon twice. As we continued on through the tunnel, we began to notice a red glow coming from the end of the tunnel, which got brighter and brighter as we neared the end.
And then the tunnel ended, and we were flying across a huge cavern. Above and around us there were rocky brown cliffs with tiny caves for dragon nests. Below us there was a mass of red, evil looking clouds. The heat was almost unbearable. A sinister rumbling sound reverberated around the cave.
Toothless had brought us to the dragon's nest. "Whoa…" I whispered, gazing around the cavern. "What my dad wouldn't give to find this." Astrid's eyes were getting wider and wider by the second.
As Toothless soared across the pit, all the dragons released their burdens and dropped the food into the pit. The small morsels disappeared into the clouds. The rumbling noise dimmed with every speck of food that disappeared. Toothless landed on one of the ledges and ducked behind a stalagmite. We all peeked around to stare at the disappearing food. "Well, it's nice to know that all our hard work is being dumped down a hole," I said sarcastically.
"They're not eating any of it," Astrid whispered, confused. The dragons, after dropping their loads, quickly landed and scurried into their caves. It was like they were scared of something. Something about this felt wrong. They wouldn't dump the food in the pit for no reason. Suddenly I had a feeling that the dragons weren't the bad guys anymore.
We watched as a small Gronkle buzzed tiredly over the pit. It glanced around, then opened its mouth and spit a tiny fish into the pit. It was no longer than my hand. The Gronkle smacked its lips and started to fly away. The rumbling sound suddenly turned from a faint rumble to quite a loud, angry one. The Gronkle froze in mid air.
And then the biggest, ugliest, evilest thing I had ever seen erupted from the depths of the clouds and closed its jaws around the poor Gronkle.
Toothless whimpered and shrunk back against the rock. The nesting dragons all whimpered and retreated into their caves. The Gronkles looked the most scared. "What…is…that?" Astrid whispered, her voice shaking.
It had to be a dragon, but it was the biggest dragon I had ever seen. The only part of it we could see was its head, and the head alone was almost ten times the size of Toothless. It had eight eyes like a spider, and they were all blood red. Its skin was a mouldy bluish-green, and it was lined with rows of small red horns. Its teeth were as long as one of Stoick's longships and as sharp as the sharpest sword in our inventory. The head sank back into the clouds, its throat vibrating and emitting a low rumble, the same one that had filled the cave seconds before. I patted Toothless's neck. "Alright buddy, we've gotta get out of here," I said with major panic. Below us, the evil dragon's eyes swivelled over to our hiding place. It knew we were here. "Now!" I cried.
Toothless took off into the air just as the monster roared and lunged at us, snapping its jaws against rock, just barely missing us. All the dragons took off after us and swarmed up toward the mouth of the volcano as the monster lunged up and snapped its jaws again, dragging down a struggling green dragon. As Toothless shot out of the volcano and away from the cave, I knew we were safe at the moment. But the monster's roar, filled with rage and evil, still echoed in my ears.
"No, no, it totally makes sense," Astrid exclaimed as Toothless neared the cove. "It's like a giant beehive. The dragons are the bees, and that was their queen. It controls them." She jumped off Toothless and took off toward the village. "Let's go find your dad!"
I shot in front of her and grabbed her by the shoulders, stopping her. "NO!" I cried. "No, , not just yet...they'll kill Toothless…" I let go of her and turned away. "We've got to think this through very carefully."
I walked over to Toothless as Astrid stopped behind me. "Hiccup, we just discovered the dragon's nest!" she said incredulously, "The thing we've been after since Vikings first sailed here! And you want to keep it a secret? To protect your pet dragon? Are you serious?"
I knew that if I sided with the dragons I was facing possible exile and probably death. I didn't care. The dragons weren't the ones to blame. If they didn't steal our food, they would be killed themselves by that monster back there. I was with Toothless on this one. I was with the dragons. I turned and stared into Astrid's eyes. "Yes," I said softly, forcing as much passion into my voice as possible.
Astrid's anger dropped off her face, and an empathetic look took its place. "Okay," she said softly. "But Hiccup, what do we do?"
"Give me until tomorrow," I said tiredly, staring forlornly at the ground. "I'll think of something."
"Okay," whispered Astrid.
We stood together, the only noise coming from Toothless, who was drinking from the lake. Then Astrid pulled back her arm and punched me in the shoulder. I gasped in surprise and pain as she said angrily, "That was for kidnapping me."
I wordlessly shook my head in protest and then turned to Toothless for support. He just rolled his eyes at me and gestured for me to turn back to Astrid.
I rubbed my arm and was about to say something, but before I could, Astrid darted forward and kissed me on the cheek. It was so fast I almost didn't believe it, but I could feel the ghost of her lips against my skin and I knew it had to be real. "And…" Astrid said, sounding embarrassed, "that was for…everything else." She turned away and took a few casual steps before breaking into a run and disappearing into the forest.
I was left staring after her dreamily, replaying the moment over and over again in my head.
Toothless walked up beside me and watched Astrid leave. It was a while before I finally noticed him standing there.
He was smirking!
I blushed. "What are you looking at?"
When I was watching the movie, and the dragon head shot out and ate the Gronkle, I actually got scared. A few days later, I had a nightmare that I was being hunted by it. Weird, right?
By the way, I've decided that if you want the next chapter, I need to get ten reviews. As soon as I get ten, I'll post the next chapter.
So, please review or else the story is unfinished forever...
